From pv magazine France
In 2020, the Gaïa group, a solar specialist based in the French overseas department of Reunion, deployed a 36 kWp solar PV plant on the roof of the Saint-Leu school, under the island's net metering scheme.
The Reunion-based company also installed an air conditioning system with a cooling capacity of 72 kW, employing French energy efficiency specialist Sirea's expertise for the system's energy management and optimization.
Sirea provided its SmartEMS technology to control the air conditioning, based on the available photovoltaic energy. “We needed an energy manager compatible with the installation's different equipment, and which is flexible enough to offer tailor-made management as close as possible to the needs of the school,” said Étienne Bernard, director of operation at Gaïa Photovoltaic.
The control system managed by Sirea PLC and installed by the Gaïa team is based on four real-time measurement points: photovoltaic production, withdrawal and injection into the distribution network, consumption of cooling units, and building consumption.
The SmartEMS can both perform these operations, and control the setpoint temperatures of the indoor air conditioning units. According to the manufacturer, this intelligent device allows the user to manually start or turn off each of the 12 indoor air conditioning units, and to act on a set temperature range of between 24°C and 26°C. Thus, in the event of a photovoltaic deficit, the controller acts on the setpoint temperature. It also issues an order to turn off all air conditioning at 8:00 p.m.
It is claimed that the self-consumption controlled by this SmartEMS makes it possible to greatly reduce the electricity consumption taken from the network while providing controlled flexibility. In addition, due to its geographical location, this project takes advantage of a strong photovoltaic potential between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., year round, thus overlapping with the air conditioning needs of users.
Overall, the project developers believe that controlling air conditioning is a wise choice that allows the Saint-Leu school to set an example in terms of energy efficiency.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.